


His Children

by diminishedmercury



Category: RWBY
Genre: I need to stop breaking this man's heart, Multi, and stupid, basically Qrow is drunk birb dad, there is cheating, this is purely self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 08:19:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12250563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diminishedmercury/pseuds/diminishedmercury
Summary: "It hurt when he became uncle again, slowly, over the next couple of years. He would never be father. He did not mind this, though, as he held Yang while she screamed and cried, her arm no longer there. He did not mind this, at all, when he followed behind Ruby and her new team. That was what a father did for his children after all. For he would never be Father, but they would always be his children."





	His Children

        When Yang was born, Qrow knew that she would run. Raven was a good sister (comparatively to others at least), but she would have been an awful mother. She was. She was horrible in the two years she stayed, but Qrow didn't let that shock him like it did Summer and Taiyang. Now, he had his first daughter thrust upon him with the departure of his sister and she was not even born of his own flesh. He didn't mind though. He got to play house with Summer, could pretend that Summer had actually married him and had a child with him (though she would, in time), all while Tai tried his damnedest to win back Raven. He never did.

        Clear memories of changing diapers come to mind whenever he looked at that mane of yellow and burning lilac. Nights spent drinking whiskey and breathing lullabies became his life a little over fifteen years ago and he didn't think that he would ever be able to turn his back on his new parent role. He didn't think that he had ever felt more loved and wanted than when he'd become Yang's stand-in father.

        But then Ruby came not long after and he was actually a father in a flurry of hospital gowns and a harsh hold on his hand (he was surprised it hadn't broken). He was a father banished to secrecy, and Tai took his place. Summer wanted it that way. She wanted Tai to have been the father, but with features so like his own and so like her own, it was a miracle that Tai hadn't figured it out years before Qrow told him. But still, he relented to Summer's demands, with his only request being that he could still be apart of his children's lives. Summer agreed and the lion was none the wiser to the deal going on underneath the table right in front of his eyes. Becoming an uncle after he'd been thrust into the role of father felt more akin to pulling out each one of his teeth than taking his proper place in this twisted family. He had no idea how he was meant to turn his little chicks into his nieces, and he could never quite make the differentiation. He played uncle until Summer died.

        He was a father again suddenly. He played the part well, a rehearsed character he hadn't had to take on since Ruby and Yang were very young, but his girls were back to being his girls. He had a new role in addition to father now, taking on "wife" somewhere down the line. He felt guilty, and Tai knew it, and the animosity between them never really went away even when they met in Tai's darkened room beneath the silk sheets he'd once shared with both his sister and his best friend (first love, his mind supplied). Qrow would never admit that he needed this, because he didn't, but Tai clearly did. Tai needed the warmth of another body. He needed the comfort of pulling a mate close and feeling their nails drag across his back. After everything that he had done, Qrow didn't think he really had the right to refuse the other man his body. Tai seemed to know that, somewhere in the back of his mind, but in the grasp of depression and anguish, Qrow didn't think he really cared beyond having Qrow's pliant body rocking back into his hips.

        Qrow played the part of wife and father so well, but he was never called anything other than "uncle" or "Qrow." His children loved him, but Summer and Tai already taught them that he was "uncle" and so he was brandished with the title for life. It didn't matter how many meals he'd cooked or how many diapers he'd changed. He was nothing more than uncle and Tai was not in love with him. He was simply Qrow, nothing more and nothing less to this family.

        The alcohol was the only lover that he knew during this time. He knew that with every drop that entered his blood, the closer that he came to becoming a true alcoholic, but he didn't care. The way it numbed his racing mind and his hyper awareness to the effect his semblance had on others felt like more of a medicine than any therapist could prescribe him for his sufferings. He could be an alcoholic though. It didn't matter. He would never become an alcoholic father and he would never do that to his children. He was the uncle to his kids and so he could be a drunk if he so chose. And he so chose. Tai would always be "father" no matter how many days he spent locked away in his room and left Qrow to tend to their young.

        He thought that he would eventually fall in love with Tai. He certainly thought that if he was going to, he would have by year ten. He had not. Nor had Tai. But their arrangement was familiar and not nearly as scary as giving it up. Out of fear of change, Qrow continued to warm Tai's bed and slipped out before morning broke to make breakfast for his kids. They kept their dirty secret to the dark nights and the hot pants. But it never helped lessen Tai's anger towards him, and he understood it (he would have been angry too after all that he's done to the poor lion), but it did not sting any less than it had ten years ago. He felt too tired to end it as well, too focused on the first years of having a teenager and dealing with boys and girls and the tendency that his oldest chick had to ask to go on dates. His heart clenched in his chest. He would not have imagined this life fifteen years ago, in Beacon, but he would not trade his suffering for happiness if it meant that he would not be their father (and you're not, a voice reminded him).

        When it was time to leave, it had been over thirteen years since they had started this fucked up semblance of a relationship (Tai felt like more a leech to Qrow than an actual partner). His kids didn't understand why he showed up less and less over the next few years. Tai did, however, and he didn't try to stop him from ending it. Their (it was Tai's now) family could become a little less tangled without the presence of Qrow. And still, Qrow couldn't help but to feel bitter over the fact that their uncle was finally going to be forced to become the father that Qrow had been all along. He didn't let thoughts of Ruby and Yang deter him from his new found work. Oz often times gave him work that kept him occupied for weeks on end and something he thought that the man simply knew. And while he did love his children, he did not love Tai enough to stay.

        It hurt when he became uncle again, slowly, over the next couple of years. He would never be father. He did not mind this, though, as he held Yang while she screamed and cried, her arm no longer there. He did not mind this, at all, when he followed behind Ruby and her new team. That was what a father did for his children after all. For he would never be Father, but they would always be his children.


End file.
